TORQUEMADA, THOMAS. - Nephew of the preceding, born at Valladolid around 1420, died at Avila on 16 Sept. 1498. He became a Dominican in the convent of S. Paolo at Valladolid, in the Congregation of the strict observance.
He was prior at Segovia, confessor to the sovereigns Ferdinando and Isabella, and a member of their Council. In 1479 he was engaged in founding the monumental convent of S. Tommaso at Avila. He was charged by the sovereigns with organizing the Tribunal of the Inquisition, and soon became its head for Castiglia on 26 Aug. and for Aragona on 17 Oct. 1483; he laid down its laws in the Compilación de las Instrucciones de la santa Inquisición, taking as his basis the legislation of the medieval Inquisition, modified in its constitution according to the interests of the sovereigns. Rigid in his principles, he aimed at the religious unification of Spain, for which he considered the expulsion of the Jews and strict surveillance over converts necessary; it is not, however, possible to determine (as has been attempted) the number of those tried and condemned, which for polemical reasons was certainly much exaggerated.
Bibl. F. Fita, La inquisición de T. Secretos íntimos, in Boletín de la R. Acad. de la Historia, 23 (1893), pp. 369-434; C. Cienfuegos, Breve reseña histór. del R. Convento de s. Tomás de Avila, Madrid 1895; H. C. Lea, History of the Inquisition in Spain, Londra-Nuova York 1906-1908; M. Menendez y Pelayo, Hist. de los Heterodoxos Españoles, ultima ed., 3 voll., Madrid 1911-12 (v. indice); W. Th. Walsh, Isabel de España, Burgos 1937, cap. 19. See also the bibliography of the entry INQUISIZIONE.